Tuesday, 23 February 2016

Review: Mini Volt by The Council of Vapor

A while ago I realized I had ended up with quite a few tanks and atomizers not getting too much use, and I took it as a sign that I should get more mods :) I was actually looking for a small, handy 60-75W mod, since, well I usually don't need much more. I spotted a picture of the Mini Volt in one of the Norwegian facebook groups and I thought it look kind of cool ... and small, but 40W seemed, well not quite enough power. Anyway a bit later on, damping.no posted another picture, and I figured why not give it a try. I mean, it had already been a while since I used my Goblin Mini and it would be quite a small handy combo. The deck on the Goblin is best suited for simple builds running fine on less than 40 anyway, and I have some sub-ohm tanks that also works quite well on these wattages as well. One thing lead to another and soon I was waiting for a package, wondering whether it would be as light and small as the Hana One. It was... and then some.

In the box

The mod

A USB charging cable

User Manual

Lots of padding, cause the box is actually big enough to fit about 8 of these mods :)

This box is tiny. I mean I thought it would be quite small, but when I opened the package and saw it in real life... it's TINY! The crazy part is that it somehow even looks smaller than it is. I was pretty sure that my 22mm diameter tanks would be to wide and look kind of stupid, but they don't. It looks great as well, carbon fiber mixed with kind of rubberised coating (like Vaporsharks), discrete logos and some nice details. Feels like it's quite solidly built as well. Great design that they could easily use for bigger boxes as well. I like it :)

In use

This is a pretty straight forward, simple 40W box. No fancy temperature control or super-advanced settings. The usual 5 click to turn on and off. There is basically two settings you can adjust; the watts of course, and the ramp up power setting which can be set to soft, standard or power. To unlock and adjust these setting you hold the fire button and either the + button (the one closest to the fire button) or the - button for 3 seconds to adjust watts or ramp up power respectively. The relevant setting will then start blinking and you can adjust using + and - buttons, and then press fire when you're happy with your work. Very simple, very effective and I kind of like the way they've done this. Keeps you from accidentally adjusting stuff while you have the mod in you pocket or something like that.

The display is quite small, of course, but it shows you what you need to know: watts, power setting, ohms and battery indicator. From what I've seen the ohm readings have been pretty stable. The display goes black after 10 second of inactivity, which is fine really. Saving battery is important in such a small but still very powerful box. I like the battery indicator as well, as it goes all the way down. I have got some mods that will go down to about half and then suddenly you get the low battery warning. This one seems to be more realistic and you don't need to worry about suddenly running out when the indicator is on half.

The usb port for charging is on the bottom of the mod so you'll have to lay it down on the side to charge. This might be one of the very few cons of this mod, since some tanks tend to leak when you leave them laying on the side. Charges from empty to full in around 3 hours I think, and it will actually show you in the display when it's fully charged, as well as when it's charging. I like the way it does that. On some mods you will barely see some kind of very tiny lightning symbol when charging, but on this one it's pretty clear what's happening. I've had my share of crappy usb cables so it's nice to see that it's actually charging...

UPDATE: I was made aware that I forgot to mention that the mod will turn off automatically when it has not been used for 10 minutes. Honestly, for my style of vaping, I'd list this under pros. I usually vape a mod/tank combo for some minutes, then put it away so it's a good thing it's turned off when I grab it to go out and put it in my pocket, so I avoid accidentally firing it in my pocket. However, I see some people list this as a con and I totally get that, people are different and vape in different ways.

Performance

This little thing packs a punch. It does really deliver the power it says it should, or at least it feels that way to me. I haven't measured or anything, just compared it to other DNA40 and DNA200 mods running at 40W and it feels similar. It also delivers stable output until the battery is empty, not reducing power when the battery is nearly done for the day. The ramp up power settings work pretty much as you hope for as well.

When it comes to battery-life, running this on 40W will not last too long. Now I haven't really experimented to much with this, and I've kept my builds above the recommended 0.8 ohms, but I guess if you drop the ohms down closer to 0.2, this mod won't last long. I've been using it with a dual-coil build in the Goblin Mini around 0.85 Ohms and around 30W, which works very well for me at least. Great vapor and I don't feel I'm doing this to conserve battery, I'd run this build at around 30W on any mod I guess. Good combination as well since the low battery warning usually starts showing up when the tank is empty. Nice timing and right now it will actually last all day at work for me, but then again, I'm not allowed to vape at my desk any more so I don't chain-vape all day.

As I said in the introduction, I was actually looking for a bit more powerful mod than this, but I'm glad I decided to try this one. I mean I'm probably still going to need one that can do more like 70W, but I've found that this little mod covers a lot of my needs. It's great for taking out and about, looks fantastic with the Goblin Mini on top, and will actually last long enough for short trips outside, even a bit longer than I expected. I believe I will appreciate it even more when it gets warmer and I don't wear these big winter jackets with huge pockets any more. This thing, with the Goblin Mini or similar size tank is so small it will easily fit into that little pocket on your jeans (coin pocket, condom pocket ... whatever you call it) or the front pocket of your shirt. I feel I've had to compromise on the flavour and performance of my equipment when I've been out and about and unable to bring my larger mods. But not any more... this mod kind of solves that problem.

It's absolutely worth giving this a try, especially since it is in fact quite cheap, usually around £30. Worth every penny if you ask me. Of course you're not getting temp. control and loads of functionality, but I've found that I usually use my mods in simple watt mode anyway, so for me this works very well. I'm impressed!

All my reviews are my honest opinion even if I am affiliated with the company manufacturing or selling the product.

This review does not contain affiliate links.

A while ago I realized I had ended up with quite a few tanks and atomizers not getting too much use, and I took it as a sign that I should get more mods :) I was actually looking for a small, handy 60-75W mod, since, well I usually don't need much more. I spotted a picture of the Mini Volt in one of the Norwegian facebook groups and I thought it look kind of cool ... and small, but 40W seemed, well not quite enough power. Anyway a bit later on, damping.no posted another picture, and I figured why not give it a try. I mean, it had already been a while since I used my Goblin Mini and it would be quite a small handy combo. The deck on the Goblin is best suited for simple builds running fine on less than 40 anyway, and I have some sub-ohm tanks that also works quite well on these wattages as well. One thing lead to another and soon I was waiting for a package, wondering whether it would be as light and small as the Hana One. It was... and then some.

In the box

The mod

A USB charging cable

User Manual

Lots of padding, cause the box is actually big enough to fit about 8 of these mods :)

This box is tiny. I mean I thought it would be quite small, but when I opened the package and saw it in real life... it's TINY! The crazy part is that it somehow even looks smaller than it is. I was pretty sure that my 22mm diameter tanks would be to wide and look kind of stupid, but they don't. It looks great as well, carbon fiber mixed with kind of rubberised coating (like Vaporsharks), discrete logos and some nice details. Feels like it's quite solidly built as well. Great design that they could easily use for bigger boxes as well. I like it :)

In use

This is a pretty straight forward, simple 40W box. No fancy temperature control or super-advanced settings. The usual 5 click to turn on and off. There is basically two settings you can adjust; the watts of course, and the ramp up power setting which can be set to soft, standard or power. To unlock and adjust these setting you hold the fire button and either the + button (the one closest to the fire button) or the - button for 3 seconds to adjust watts or ramp up power respectively. The relevant setting will then start blinking and you can adjust using + and - buttons, and then press fire when you're happy with your work. Very simple, very effective and I kind of like the way they've done this. Keeps you from accidentally adjusting stuff while you have the mod in you pocket or something like that.

The display is quite small, of course, but it shows you what you need to know: watts, power setting, ohms and battery indicator. From what I've seen the ohm readings have been pretty stable. The display goes black after 10 second of inactivity, which is fine really. Saving battery is important in such a small but still very powerful box. I like the battery indicator as well, as it goes all the way down. I have got some mods that will go down to about half and then suddenly you get the low battery warning. This one seems to be more realistic and you don't need to worry about suddenly running out when the indicator is on half.

The usb port for charging is on the bottom of the mod so you'll have to lay it down on the side to charge. This might be one of the very few cons of this mod, since some tanks tend to leak when you leave them laying on the side. Charges from empty to full in around 3 hours I think, and it will actually show you in the display when it's fully charged, as well as when it's charging. I like the way it does that. On some mods you will barely see some kind of very tiny lightning symbol when charging, but on this one it's pretty clear what's happening. I've had my share of crappy usb cables so it's nice to see that it's actually charging...

UPDATE: I was made aware that I forgot to mention that the mod will turn off automatically when it has not been used for 10 minutes. Honestly, for my style of vaping, I'd list this under pros. I usually vape a mod/tank combo for some minutes, then put it away so it's a good thing it's turned off when I grab it to go out and put it in my pocket, so I avoid accidentally firing it in my pocket. However, I see some people list this as a con and I totally get that, people are different and vape in different ways.

Performance

This little thing packs a punch. It does really deliver the power it says it should, or at least it feels that way to me. I haven't measured or anything, just compared it to other DNA40 and DNA200 mods running at 40W and it feels similar. It also delivers stable output until the battery is empty, not reducing power when the battery is nearly done for the day. The ramp up power settings work pretty much as you hope for as well.

When it comes to battery-life, running this on 40W will not last too long. Now I haven't really experimented to much with this, and I've kept my builds above the recommended 0.8 ohms, but I guess if you drop the ohms down closer to 0.2, this mod won't last long. I've been using it with a dual-coil build in the Goblin Mini around 0.85 Ohms and around 30W, which works very well for me at least. Great vapor and I don't feel I'm doing this to conserve battery, I'd run this build at around 30W on any mod I guess. Good combination as well since the low battery warning usually starts showing up when the tank is empty. Nice timing and right now it will actually last all day at work for me, but then again, I'm not allowed to vape at my desk any more so I don't chain-vape all day.

As I said in the introduction, I was actually looking for a bit more powerful mod than this, but I'm glad I decided to try this one. I mean I'm probably still going to need one that can do more like 70W, but I've found that this little mod covers a lot of my needs. It's great for taking out and about, looks fantastic with the Goblin Mini on top, and will actually last long enough for short trips outside, even a bit longer than I expected. I believe I will appreciate it even more when it gets warmer and I don't wear these big winter jackets with huge pockets any more. This thing, with the Goblin Mini or similar size tank is so small it will easily fit into that little pocket on your jeans (coin pocket, condom pocket ... whatever you call it) or the front pocket of your shirt. I feel I've had to compromise on the flavour and performance of my equipment when I've been out and about and unable to bring my larger mods. But not any more... this mod kind of solves that problem.

It's absolutely worth giving this a try, especially since it is in fact quite cheap, usually around £30. Worth every penny if you ask me. Of course you're not getting temp. control and loads of functionality, but I've found that I usually use my mods in simple watt mode anyway, so for me this works very well. I'm impressed!